Why environmentalists are working to grant rivers and mountains legal status.
This article by Dayton Martindale appeared in In These Times, January 24, 2018.
rights • of • na•ture
noun
1. The ethical principle that the living world—individual organisms as well as the ecology and geography that shelters and sustains them—has inherent worth
2. Legal protections for ecosystems
“Some people will say it’s pretty strange to give a natural resource a legal personality. But it’s no stranger than family trusts, or companies or incorporated societies.” —New Zealand treaty negotiations minister Chris Finlayson, on the granting of legal personhood to the Whanganui River
Why rights? Aren’t regulations enough?
For many indigenous advocates of rights of nature, ecosystems are both sacred in their own right and inseparable from human societies. “I am the river and the river is me,” a Māori saying goes—an injury to the river is an injury to all. Rights of nature enshrine this principle as law. This ethical viewpoint isn’t so different from that of some radical environmentalists, who argue ecosystems and other organisms—be it due to their interconnectedness with sentient animals (including humans), their perceived consciousness or simply the fact they exist and are alive—have a moral claim to their lives and livelihoods. But for the hard-nosed human supremacists out there, there’s a selfish argument, too: The legal framework of rights offers more protection than typical regulations, and if we don’t protect these ecosystems, plenty of humans will suffer. MORE…